Day 828. The kids were having a rough night. Sammy cried frequently all night long, probably because of a foreign bed and the heat, as our AC wasn't working. Emmy and Tammy climbed into bed with us, and we let them, but I also put them back a few times. It was close to midnight before I got to fall asleep, and in the morning it was Emmy, as usual, who was up first. Because of the tiring trip and the late bedtime it was at least later than usual, something like 7 am, which is 8 am in Austria. I guess you could say he's already adapted to the new time zone, as they get up at 7 in Austria!
But we did not get up right away. He and I were the only one awake, and for a while, with the others tight asleep. Emmy was sitting next to me and talking with me. He finally got to the topic of the cats and wanted to see them. He became more and more insistent, so I finally got up and we left the bedroom to find the cats. He was so excited, when he saw them! In fact the first half of the day the cats were the main topic, as they kept looking for them. Emmy and I returned to the bedroom, and the nice cat followed us. Sammy woke up, I picked him up, and also let him see the cat. Emmy was still a little cautious about touching it. It wasn't long before Tammy woke up because of the commotion, and she joined us as the most fearless one, trying to touch her. But she still moves too fast and the cat defended herself again today. Thankfully Tammy is not giving up. I keep telling her to move slowly.
After the cat had left, Tammy and Emmy climbed back up onto our waterbed, where Randy was still sleeping, and started having fun, including jumping and running on the moving bed.
We finally all got up and went to the living room. It was time to figure out what to feed them. We hadn't unpacked anything, and one cabinet in the kitchen had come out of the wall, thankfully not falling because of something sitting underneath that was holding it up. But it held my plates, amongst other things, so I asked Randy to take it off. He emptied it and took it off the wall. I hope he can put it back up.
Everything was a mess. I opened a new can of oatmeal and had some old almond slices and coconut shaves. That's what I used to eat for breakfast, adding milk to it, and so that's what I made for them. They didn't like it, so it ended up being my breakfast. I had some sausage and leftover bread that I had taken with me from Austria and gave that to them, and they ate a little. Then I cut open one of the two Malian watermelons Paul had bought. It's the beginning of the watermelon season, and soon they'll be sold for next to nothing, and their taste is gonna get better and better too. The one we had today didn't have that much taste yet, but I was glad to see them eat it. Tammy is the watermelon girl after all, even though she didn't eat the last ones we had in Austria.
Margit arrived at our house, and Randy and I both had work to do. I asked her to occupy the kids and watch them. They wanted to draw, so they sat down and did some drawing for a while. Randy took the cabinet off the wall, and then started unpacking, while I turned the computer on to work. The kids were running around everywhere, including coming to see me in the office, so at times it was hard to make progress. And Paul was coming and going as well. The light in our bathroom was fixed, and a guy came to fix the door, though it wasn't fixed. They also came to fix the AC, but tonight the electricity wasn't good enough to use it, as it caused all the power to go off every time we turned it on, the darkness freaking out the kids.
Sammy was having a hard time again today, crying every time we'd set him down, always wanting us to hold him, which made things even tougher. I got stressed out at times because of everything I had to do, and what the kids were doing. But even though they didn't have a closed-in area, in the end they did pretty well in terms of not pulling everything off the shelves.
Even though there was a 1-hour time difference, we just went with Bamako time. Because of the mess I made an easy and fast Austrian meal - egg pasta. Margit wanted to eat the Malian food, so she left and ate with our Malian kids. So I only had to cook for the five of us. I was glad to see them all eat, even though they had snacked until very recently. All those Austrian snacks will be gone soon, if they continue like that.
With everything in the house being dirty, they needed to get into the bathtub after eating more than ever. At first Emmy was scared and didn't want to get in. I had the water come out of the shower head, just like in Austria, with the tub being empty. Because of his fear I stepped into the tub with them. It wasn't long until he was happily playing with the water, and so did his siblings. All the dirty came off, leaving the water pretty dirty.
Then it was nap time. But that was a challenge with them all sharing a bed. It was already about 1 pm. In the end the only way it worked was for Sammy to lie in their bed, Emmy wanted to sleep on our bed and immediately lay down in his sleeping position, and Randy sat down in the chair with Tammy. That way they were soon asleep, and I moved them to their bed.
The three of them sleeping gave us much needed time to make progress with our work. After some time I woke Randy up from his nap, and he also got a lot done before they woke up. Sammy woke up first, as usual, and I went to get him. He was not happy. Margit returned even before the others were up. Finally they both woke up at the same time, but it was already going on 4 pm, so they had slept more than two hours.
Tammy was her usual cranky self after waking up. Our Malian kids had just arrived to say hello, and Emmy was immediately having fun with them, while Tammy wanted to be with me at first, but then Sarata held her. Jonathan picked up Emmy right away. The kids didn't stay long, as they had homework and chores to do, except for 1-year-old Amaga and 3-year-old Esther who stayed. I was trying to get work done, which was made difficult with Emmy and Tammy frequently coming to me in the office. And Sammy was still crying all the time, so I got him a few times to make him happy.
I finished the big job I had worked on, and seeing Emmy look out the window, looking at the chickens, I thought to myself, why not just go outside for a few minutes. So I went to get their shoes and put them on, and we all walked outside - Emmy, Tammy and the Malian kids and me. They immediately went for the chicken. Tammy quickly followed it, while Emmy was too scared and wanted Sarata to carry him all the way to the end which she did. We continued following a chicken and found another chicken with a whole bunch of chicks. How cute! Sarata ended up picking one up and holding it to Tammy. I petted it and then Tammy did briefly.
We continued walking and finally found the sheep, after rounding the corner. They were so excited to see our two pregnant sheep! Esther (3) took Sarata's hand while they were walking next to each other. They kept following the sheep, as did Sarata with Emmy on her arm, but the sheep kept running away. It was astounding to me that sheep who live so closely with humans are afraid of them. It was impossible to touch them. I finally decided it was time to go back inside.
Margit left again for a while, while we continued taking care of things. At 5:30 I started making their dinner, but I didn't feel like a I had a lot of options. I got some of the bread I had brought from Austria and put some of the fake cheese on it that Paul had bought, but our clever kids did not want to eat that. I gave them banana, which they ate, as well as watermelon. Not a great dinner, but a good start.
Then it was time for the bathtub. Our water runs pretty slowly so it takes a whole lot longer to fill it, and I had forgotten to turn the water on. They finally went inside and started playing. I had to warn them about playing with the faucet, as it gets hot really quickly, and thankfully they listened. But then I turned the whirlpool on, and they loved it - except for Sammy who was scared, and so I turned it back off. But plenty of foam had been created that they loved. They were playing with it, and Sammy got ouf of the water. As soon as he was gone, Emmy pushed the button to turn the whirlpool back on. But soon it was his turn to get out of the water, and then his sister's.
Just as I was about to put Sammy to bed, and while Emmy was on the changing table and Tammy in the water, the power went out. Tammy started shouting in fear, and I tried to get to her as fast as I could, but with Sammy on my arm, I could not get her out without everything getting wet. Thankfully the power returned quickly, and all was good. But it did go off several more times. Including when I tried to turn the AC on, and when I turned our hot water kettle on. So no high-power machines tonight - no AC, and water heated by the gas stove. It's as hot as last time in our bedrooom, over 32 degrees Celsius.
Then it was bedtime, and they were all supposed to be in one bed. Emmy wanted to sleep on our bed, and so did Tammy. I put Emmy on our bed, and Randy sat down with Tammy, like at lunch time, but she went hysterical, wanting to sleep on our bed. I asked Emmy whether he would return to his bed, and he did. But as soon as Tammy lay down on our bed, he was jealous and back up on his feet, wanting to also sleep there. In the end they were both on our bed, with pillows separating them. Randy stayed with them, while I left, but both of them wanted me to stay. I could still hear Emmy crying for me, so I finally returned and Randy left. Emmy calmed down, even though I did not lie down as Emmy was asking me to do. It didn't take too long before they were both asleep; Sammy had fallen asleep quickly.
I got my food and moved my computer from the office to the bedroom. Randy was in the living room eating there. I ate and then continued working. Now it's 12:30 am, and I have been struggling with keeping my eyes open for a while. Randy has already been asleep for quite a while, and I'm thankful that it has been a quiet night for the kids, not one of them waking up so far. Now it's my turn to sleep.
